Two Dollars A Day

Photos and thoughts from the past and present and dreams about the future.

Monday, May 29, 2006

It's Just "Ukraine"

My fourth years ended their classwork with me before they could turn in their response letters to the American students who had written to them. I told them if they were interested in keeping in touch I would edit them and send them out.

I was editing one such letter from a student and took interst in her polite p.s., which noted that, by the way, you do not use the article "the" before Ukraine.

This is something that I have been guilty of myself as my entry announcing my placement is entitled "The Ukraine." This is how we are accustomed to hearing this country's name, but it is not correct. The "the" implies that Ukraine is a part of a larger whole (the Soviet Union, in this case). The idea is that like saying the South or the Northwest; referring to a territory instead of an independent nation, which Ukraine is.

I never knew what Ukrainians thought about this and so myself decided not to be nit picky about it when I heard the "the." Part of the Peace Corps's three main goals is to share the culture of our host country with Americans, and I always thought Ukraine or the Ukraine, at least now people I know would perhaps pay more attention when they hear it mentioned in the news or take an interest in finding out more about the country, so who cares!

But after reading her letter, I thought, well, good for her. Maybe it's time for me to bring it up politely too. So there you have it. It's Ukraine. Not the Ukraine.

Friday, May 26, 2006

Summer Plans

I am excited for the summer. So far I have three special things planned and hope that this summer will be full of Peace Corps approved business/offical/weekend travel.

First (and probably most exciting of all) is an American Studies conference put on by the U.S. Embassy to be held in Yalta. Yes, a glorious week in Yalta talking about American Studies. Can you believe my luck? It actually turns out that one of my clustermates will be there too, the only other PCV going. I hope that it will be as awesome as I am hoping it will be.

Next is our second language refresher, which for me will be in the Eastern city of Kharkiv, another part of the country I have yet to see. So, I am really looking forward to that too.

Last on the list is the summer camp I'll be participating in, held nearby. Everyone who has participated before raves about this camp, so I'm super excited to be a part of it, even if I know it will be a lot of work.

Also on the summer schedule is a working meeting in Kyiv, which maybe will also for some sightseeing, finally.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

...And Then There Were Two....

Grilled Blackened Chicken
Spicy Chicken Wings
Spaghetti
Beer Bottom Chicken
Chicken Fajitas
Jumbalaya

I could go on....

While I would starve at my host family's, one volunteer always saw to it that I had a square meal. The above list are some of the incredibly tasty dishes he would magically put together and offer.

When he would leave town, he'd offer me his keys and tell me to stay over and watch any of the many dvds he had in his collection. Even on occassion when he was in town he'd let me stay over because I was uncomfortable going home at night. He even received a frantic call from me one afternoon after I had a rather questionable run-in with a drunken host father. He told me just to come over immediately and let me stay.

And one time after falling into a puddle of muddy water, he let me borrow a pair of pants to wear out to the store. He's fed, clothed, and housed me.

He's an excellent cook and host.

He has welcomed many Ukrainians to the various clubs we volunteers have in town, always advertising, always inviting, always a smile on his face, a hand out to shake, arms to hug. They love him and appreciate him in a way they have not responded to the rest of us, a bit more timid. He's the first to start conversations, to get the ball rolling, provide a joke or anecdote for the evening.

He's always the entertainer.

There were times (many times) when I needed someone to talk to, about life, love, work, and Ukraine. He's offered his ear, his sage advice, and most importantly, his life experiences. He's let me vent about everything, listening, asking questions, providing reassurance.

He's a wonderful friend.

He has left N--, his 2 years are finished, but the things he started will continue. I, for one, will miss him immensely. While my time in Ukraine has been short, most of my fondest memories here in N-- involve him. I learned so much from him, and I wish him all the best for his life back home in the States.

You will be missed!

Monday, May 22, 2006

Flexibility

"Be flexible," the PC staff repeated to us during training. It was their mantra for success in Ukraine.

I feel that I have been flexible. I did not have an ideal host family situation, but I lived through it. I do what is asked when it is asked without complaining.

And then, when I arrived at work on last Monday, I had no room number for my creative writing class. It was not my first period, so I did not panic. When the break before the class came I asked around where would my class be? After my coordinator made some inquiries on my behalf, he said that i probably would not have my fourth years anymore as they had to prepare to take state exams. I expressed my disappointment and asked if it would be possible for me to continue our classes, as I love those girls. He seemed to infer that my work with them was over and that he'd get me my new schedule. "хорошо" I said. Flexibility. I am flexible.

Then he told me that for tomorrow I would have to give a report on higher education and something about integration into Europe. i thought that maybe he was joking. "Are you serious?" I asked. "Yes, maybe something ilke 10 minutes." Fear gripped me. After further inquiry he said that it could be on any topic I wanted in higher education, which was a relief, but still not much. He then said, "okay, 5 minutes and you shall find a student to translate for you." He also said the presentation would be on Wednesday, maybe, but it would definitely have to be done by tomorrow. I asked him "when did you lear about this, today?" He said yes. I asked who else would be speaking and he said he would, others would, etc. I asked him what he will speak about, and he responded his dissertation topic. I asked another English teacher and she responded with something that flew over my head about sociolinguistics. I panicked. But then thought, well, if he can takl about his topic, why couldn't I talk about mine? I asekd him, but then quickly decided that since they also mentioned perhaps talking about new methods of teaching, I'd talk about service learning. Why not? I man my days from MACC and Lasell should be capitalized on, right?

Even with that quick save though, I still don't understand how people can do something like that at a moment's notice. Ukrainians seem to have a natural gift for this flexibility that seems so difficlt for us Americans. I acn't imagine being at a university in the States and being told you must make a speech and that you only have one day to prepare.

When I went to a volunteer's apartment afterwards (he was admist cleaning everything out because he left N-- that day) I received a phone call from my coordinator. "We need the title of your report. Text it to me now." I hung up, looked at him and said, "Can you believe that? I'm told less than an hour ago and they already want a title!" "Call it 'Something that I just pulled out of my ass,'" he suggested. I settled instead on "Service Learning: What is it and how does it work in the classroom."

Again, this is now something that I suppose I am "used to" but still can not really get and I am torn between an admiration of my peers for their ability to go with the flow and a sense of incredulousness that this is how things should be run.

But it matters little, as I must just keep repeating "be flexible, be flexible, be flexible...."


post script: We finally had this "conference" today. It was held in the Ukrainian Theater in town, which is beautiful. It turns out that I was the only препадевтел to speak. Arg. But at least it is over and it wasn't all bad.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Cooking

When I lived in Bowling Green, I learned to really appreicate cooking for myself. I regularly made myself healthy and diverse dinners, and enjoyed trying new things. Of course, this was only if it took only a 1/2 hour total to prepare.

I ate a lot of ethnic food, salads, marinated chicken, rice, brocolli, asaparagus, raviolis, and potatoes.

Now here in Ukraine I can not get some of those foods that were my staples. I have learned the word for asparagus (спаржа( but have yet to actually see it anywhere. Ethnic and spicy food is inexistant, and there is no marinade for chicken, and besides, chicken is incredibly expensive for me so I have yet to buy any meat since I moved from my host family. Ravioli like foods exist, but they are stuffed with potatoes or liver and called vareniki or pelmeni. I have finally found salad, but there is no salad dressing to speak of, and no fresh brocolli either. So I end up eating a lot of potatoes, vareniki (stuffed with potatoes), and when I can, I make up a fresh salad. Now, I also have a hard time spending even a half hour on cooking since we have several clubs late at night in town and by the time I get home, it is all that I can do to wait to boil the water for the vareniki or potato.

But a few weeks back when we hosted the music festival, someone had made these delicious hashbrowns for everyone in the morning that I have since adopted and tried to incorporate when I feel like making something that requires a little more effort than boiling water. The secret ingredient to kick them up a notch is curry.

So, if you want to eat like a volunteer, here is what you do.

Ingredients
1 large potato (regular size potato in US)
1 small onion
curry
sunflower oil

In frying pan, put in a lot of oil to cover the entire frying pan and then some

Wash and peel potato, you want no radioactive containaments
Grate potato
Cut up onion into small pieces and put into frying pan for 2 minutes before adding grated potato.
Once grated potato is in the frying pan, mix in about a teaspoon of curry powder. (Okay, so I do not use measurements I just shake it in there. Thanks again to Mr. Howe for that delicious stuff). Fry until outside part of hashbrowns are brownish.

Remove from heat and put into plate.

Grab Heinz ketchup from fridge (yes, I said Heinz Ketchup. This will set you back about 15 greeven, or about $3. It is very expensive stuff) and enjoy!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Can You Believe This?

So unbeknownst to me when I was away they didn't have any classes at the univesrity becuase there are so many holidays so close together (Labor Day and Victory Day) so , they decided to make up Wednesdays classes on Saturday. Can you imagine that? I found out about this on Friday afternoon and was already out for the evening. So I did not end up having time to do any lesson planning for my two course that I teach on Wednesday.

Call me crazy, but if you have a holiday or vacation in school, you do not make up the classes over the weekend, you don't make up classes at all, because it was a holiday, a not work day or a punishable not work day.

Needless to say, it was not my best class on saturday as I had made plans to see a friend from out of town and these classes were interfering with it so I cut my 160 minute course short about 70 minutes and tried to leave unnoticed, but as it was the head of the departments birthday, I got flack from my coordinator for not staying to celebrate. True, i too felt like crap, but that is also par through the course here. The American never learns about any of these things till last minute, so i never have cards or flowers or chocolates to give and probably no not seem like much of a team player. *Sigh*. Again, this may also be a symptom of me not being particularly proactive in finding this information out, so the communication issue continues.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Slipping Back In

I was afraid that a weekaway would affect my already poor language abilities, but within the first 12 hours back I did a pretty good job maintaining serveral prolonged conversations with strangers.

When arriving at the airport, I was of course accosted by numerous and eager taxi drivers calling out "girl" to me and looking at all the luggage I was hauling. "не нада," I responded, and kept going until one extremely persistant taxi driver confronted me out by the buses. He asked me where I was going to (my final destination) and shook his head and said that he'd get me to the train station at least a 1/2 hour earlier. He also gave me a fair price, so I decided to do it, as with my delayed flight, time was of the essence to get home as quickly as I desired. We had a nice conversation for th trip and he told me that I'd probably have to go to Odessa again to get home because the N-- train left an hour ago, which I was already aware of. I had a back up plan to stay in Kyiv with a volunteer, but the idea of hauling about 100 pounds of luggage on the notorious theive-infested Kyiv metro at night was less appealing than buying an extra ticket to Odessa (I had prior purchased one to N-- for the next night) to get home a day early.

After a few words with the woman behind the каса she told me I could get no tickets to N-- for tonight and when I asked about Odessa, she would not entertain it. A man in line then asked what it was that I wanted, because my Russian is so poor. He spoke English, so he told me my only option was Odessa, and gave me the train number and told me what to say and then left, as he had already gotten his tickets. Was glad for his help, evefn if this time teh каса lady was incredibly rude and even made fun of me. I asked for a coupe ticket instead of platzkarte, and I thought she told me they were more expensive, which I responded that I knew and then she looked at me for money. I then asked "how much" and she said, "you said you understood!" and then repeated what it was that she said originally. I looked baffled. The woman next to me plugged the number into her cell phone and showed it to me. I still don't understand how "doraguyuh" and "sorok-adeen" sound the same. So that was frustrating, but lead me to my second prolonged attempt at Russian.

Right before the train from Kyiv took off, it looked like it was just going to be me all by my lonesome in the coupe, but then two young men came in and started getting out food and drink, which they promptly offered to me. I declined the cognac, but took the coca-cola. They found out I was a foreigner and so one of them started asking all sorts of questions and we talked for a pretty long time. At some point in time though, they got up to go and smoke and actually showed me a little pipe that one of them had made and that they had an illegal substance. I thought "oh joy!" not really knowing the Ukrainian laws on such matters. I promptly started making up my bed and getting ready to sleep. It is the first time I have seen any such stuff here and suddenly realized that this could also be why they both were so anti-getting drunk--they both were into something else. Of course they would not let me sleep when they came back, chatting to me now a bit quicker and using more complicated speech. The one who was talking to me was also now wearing shades, even though it was after 11pm.

They finally seemd to accept that I was going to sleep and went out again to smoke more and after 10 minutes or so another woman appeared at the door and she would be our fourth coupe-mate. Eventually, they did come back, smelling and whatnot, and decided that they too must go to sleep.

Somewhere during our conversation though, before they had gone out, I realized that I was doing okay language wise and that I can do ok when I have a sympathetic listener. I also need to remember that while I have been here now for over seven months, I only studied Russian for three months, not having formally continued my study, something I still have ambivalent feeligns about. But it was reassuring to me that I am not a complete idiot!

Monday, May 15, 2006

Lowlights and Highlights from my trip Home:

Lowlights

1. Too short. What was I thinking?

2) Did not get to talk to everyone I wanted to --> which I guess is normal. But am thankful th those who called me. Thanks Leah, Susie, and Tadd! And to my Uncle as well!

3) Did not eat enough. I tried. But to consume as much as I desired would have been impossible.

4) Falling asleep before the ending of Lost. I am not a crazy fan like some folks, but I definitely find it entertaining.

5) Not watching enough tv.

6) Not taking pictures of the wedding.

7) Not enough room in suitcase to bring everything I wanted.

8) Not enough money to buy everything I wanted.

9) No new I-pod tunes.

10) Not making it to a West Chester restaurant.

Highlights

1) The wedding. Duh.

2) Actually, all day Saturday--> getting dress, getting hair done, spending time with my new sister-in-law on her special day, then later friends and family. Was beautiful.

3) Hanging out with Dad at the shop.

4) Mom's trip to BJ's and Wegman's.

5) FOOD.

6) Talking, seeing folks.

7) Getting Boston clothes from out of the attic and finding out that they fit.

8) Maincure and pedicure on Friday. I've shown all the PCVs here my feet.

9) Watching news channels.

10) The extra room on all flights.

Readjusting

While it was not necessarily hard to leave America, I have found it harder to be in Ukraine since my visit home. Actually harder than when I first arrived. Perhaps I am still tired and exhausted, as things have been busy here and I tend to need some time to readjust once my routine has been changed.

And I erally have not had time to properly get my Ukrainian life back in order since my return. but of cousre there could be excuses for just being lazy.

I am craving the end of the semester though and some of the exciting events that will take place over the summer. I am excited about having the chance to recreate myself over the summer, of becoming a hard-nose teacher and not having to plan lesson plans week by week, like I do now.

I am hoping that family and friends from America and beyond will want to see what life is like in Ukraine and will come and visit me.

I have many things to look forward to here in Ukraine and I hope that after I get back into the groove of things that I won't feel a certain kind of sadness when I light my kolonka. That things will return to normal and it won't make me sad that when I turn on my tv I don't undersatnd what the people are saying. Or that I am extremely poor (by U.S. standards, of course). None of these things bothered me before and they won't bother me soon enough.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Here I am again, back in N-- safe and sound. I am quite exhausted and need to find some food for my apartment before the produkti's close, so I have little to say right now.

Again, I am very sorry that I did not get a chance to talk to a lot of people over my trip. I have learned my lesson though and next time I will make my trip at least 2 weeks in order to get some more things accomplished. Besides, only catching one episode of "Lost" just isn't enough.

I also realize how little stuff I brought back from America with me and am having a bit of shoppers remorse. I basically doubled my closet in size, but brought back very little food. Couldn't even imagine fitting a plastic bottle of salsa in my bag. I know that some of you mentioned getting together packages. A big plastic bottle of salsa would be killer. Or even a small plastic one. Salsa. Salsa. Salsa.

Also, I received a text message from someone, and I'm assuming it's from one of the girls that I lived with in college but it had no identifying features. Perhaps I am wrong? C or B? Let me know!

Monday, May 08, 2006

All Apologies

Well, tomorrow I leave America and head back to Ukraine. It's been a great 6 days, but a quick week. I did not get to do most of the things that I desired to do in terms of talking to friends outside of the area here, but I quickly decided that I would not make any efforts unless I got phone calls. Call me a jerk, but I was just too tired every night to even attempt to try to make conversation. Actually, the idea of even dialing a phone some nights seemed too trying. I did get to relax somewhat and get to spend time with family for the wedding, which was awesome. I got to see my friends still in the area, which was also awesome, and talk to a few people on the phone, but obviously not enough or everyone, and for that I am very sorry. I suppose that when I was in Ukraine thinking about this trip I didn't think that the jet lag would affect me as much as it did, or even my teaching schedule, but seriously, I have basically passed out every night around 9pm. I tried to stay up to see SNL on the night of the wedding, but I barely made it through Tom Hank's monologue. I've been a bum. I've tried to eat my mom out of house and home. I have been drinking root beer like it's my job. I have been trying to watch some quality television, like the Today Show or news programs because I can't understand that stuff in Russian or Ukrainian, so I am very behind on what is going on here. I am sorry that I did not fulfill my goals in terms of getting a chance to catch up on all of your lives, but hopefully you won't hold it against me and please know that I am always thinking of you and wondering how you are all doing. Keep up the letters, e-mails, text messages, and so on. They keep me motivated and keep me going!


Yushchenko's bloc: Nasha Ukrainia.  Posted by Picasa


Yanocovich, the Putin backed candidate. His party (the Region's Party) collected the most votes, but did not win a majority. Posted by Picasa


From March: A calvacade of Yulia Timoshenko supporters (notice flags on cars) roll up N-- less than a week before the electoin. Also notice the He Tak! advertisemnt: Nato: No, EZP: Yes, Russian Language: Yes. They did not get enough votes to even get a seat in Parliament. Posted by Picasa


In action Posted by Picasa

Sunday, May 07, 2006


Odessa Opera House Posted by Picasa


Odessa Train Station Posted by Picasa


Beautiful but aging Odessa Posted by Picasa


Cow in Odessa. Oh yeah, and some public art work too. Posted by Picasa


Odessa's Humor Carnival on April First. Posted by Picasa


Parade float from Odessa Humor Carnival on April First Posted by Picasa

Saturday, May 06, 2006


A very happy me in my new home after 6 months of being moved around--I am finally home!! Posted by Picasa


My vacuum cleaner, not a missle launcher. Posted by Picasa


Living room. Posted by Picasa


My bedroom. A nice comfortable and HUGE bed! Posted by Picasa


My bathroom. It's a new toilet but an old bath. Everything (except toilet) drains into bathtub, so when the drains get clogged it is really disgusting. Posted by Picasa


A girl's best friend: a washing machine! Posted by Picasa


The front door to my apartment. Notice the Blair Witch thingie above the door. No, I did not put it there, but you better believe that I'm not taking it down. Posted by Picasa


I love you kolonka! This device heats water for me, so that I have really hot water that will last and last. To use this device I turn the gas on using the lever on the right side and then adjust the black knob on the kolonka. I then light a match and again turn the black knob up, turn on water, and presto! Hot water! Posted by Picasa

Friday, May 05, 2006

Highlights from the Journey Home

I left my home in N-- around 1pm along with the couple heading to Odessa. It was nice to have company for the less than 3 hour journey as the wife and I chatted a lot about family, life, and all sorts of things. We also got some time to shut our eyes and get a few winks of sleep. I also chowed down on the only food I brought, a loaf of bread.

We arrived in Odessa and had a pretty tasty lunch that would keep me full for the entire rest of the day. They left around 5pm and I was basically left hanging around the train station for about 2 and a half hours because I didn't want to risk getting lost to wander around Odessa, no matter how beautiful she is.

On the train everything was basically okay until some folks arrived to keep me up. As soon as these young men found out that I was a foreigner it was all over. It was already midnight, I was riding platzkarte, so I didn't want the rest of the wagon to know my business, so I told the one dude that I'd go watch him smoke and we could talk some. I thought that this would also help them to watch my stuff which was located under the "bed" of his friend. I did this and then went to bed. Not sure if that was exactly what he wanted, as his friends made comments about me, basically regarding the language I used (Russian). I wanted to tell them that I understood Ukrainian (in Ukrainian) but then if I had to actually say or hold a conversation in Ukrainian, they'd quickly realize that I was lying.

Before my company arrived on the train, I did get to read some interesting graffitti on the way out of Odessa and had to look up some words in my dictionary. I was mostly intrigued because it was about Americans and Yushchenko. "You American puppet" they proclaimed, the "they" being a ground calling themselves the "Russian league." Awesome.

So we arrived in the morning to Kyiv and I found myself a taxi even before I left the building. They told me that it would cost 50 more grvs then I was given the cost of from other volunteers, and I told them that I would only pay 100. One dude then went around asking who would do it for that cost while his partner asked me where I was from. America, I responded, and then he told me that he has relatives in Philadelphia. I told him that this was my city. When his partner returned, this man put his arm around me and said that I was his American sister. This was very nice, but he still didn't knock down the price. I did end up going with the other man's brother and we had a nice and easy ride to the airport.

At the airport in Kyiv, I waited around for what seemed like hours (well, actually it was hours) because they would not check my bags until about 50 minutes before the flight. This annoyed me to no end as it is a pain in the neck to roll around a huge piece of luggage, even if it is basically empty. I found out the reason why we checked our bags so late though: there were only 4 of us on the flight. It was absolutely awesome. A huge plane and we could pick where we wanted to seat (except we weren't allowed in business class, what is that about Ukrainian Air?) but we got excellent service and the food was actually pretty good.

We arrived in Milan and I parted ways with my new friends to get to my transfer flight. I got myself some gellatto and enjoyed being someplace different again. Actually the gellatto was absolutely heavenly and it wasn't until hours later that I realized that I paid as much for it as I would have a big meal at a nice restaurant in N--. I felt a little awkward after that. I looked around the stores realizing how expensive everything is, but also how beautiful. The surge of capitalism was taking me over, but I ended up just taking a seat and waiting to be boarded on the plane.

This plane also ended up not being full, so I was able to stretch out on two seats and attempt to sleep in an awkward sort of fashion. It worked for about 15 minutes at a time. It was also hard to sleep because it was daytime the entire time of our flight, so everything had a sort of artificialness about it.

Eventually though, we made it home and I was so excited at the baggage claim, jumping up and down trying to get my legs working again. A woman took notice and asked if I was happy to be home. I told her my situation and she offered me to use her cell phone so that I could call my mom and tell her were I was. I was struck at just how friendly we Americans are. We talk to strangers all the time. We did not have to wait long before being reunited and headed home. On the way we picked up the promised pizza which I enhaled at home while watching "Lost" even though I feel asleep during the last 10 minutes of it.

Actually, I've been falling asleep regularly before 9pm here, which is why I have been an awful friend and not calling anyone. I am trying to wait till the rates go down, but I end up clonking out and then getting back up at 3am, which is 10am Ukrainian time. I have decided to give up the battle of trying to stay up later than 9pm, because a week is just not long enough to really do that to my body. I am also realizing that coming home for only 6 days is just not a feasible endeavor either and I will probably not do that again (come home that is) unless it's for 2 weeks or more. I am still hoping that I'll get a chance to see my friends who are in the area, and will try to give them a call tonight, but beyond that, I'm just going to relax relax relax and eat.


Anyway, they finally got to sleep, which allowed me to also sleep some.

Thursday, May 04, 2006


View from a window in my apartment.  Posted by Picasa


Some of the decaying grandeur on Sovietskaya in my beautiful city. Posted by Picasa


The Lenin in N--. Posted by Picasa


You know what this means, right? I am home. This is a picture of the Lenin statue in my training town. Pic probably taken sometime around October. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Tired. Stressed. Blah.

Since Friday the N-- volunteers have been hosting upwarps 30 folks from 3 groups here in Ukraine.

The idea was to put together a "music festival" of sorts at the dacha purchased by some former PCVs now in the States.

People were contacted at least a month in advance and we secured an apartment for one night on Saturday to have more space for people to stay.

Friday night was spent at my house doing I-pod concerts, essentially the idea is like karaoke, except you are the only one who can hear the song and people sing along. It was a lot of fun, but as the party kept going and I kept asking it to stop, a neighbor finally got fed up and came down and yelled at us. I've never met this neighbor and surely felt like an ass, as we were being really loud. Needless to say everyone who wasn't staying with me got kicked out and that ended that night.

The next day we went out to the dacha where we basically ate and talked and danced. Some of my cluster and link mates came into town. This is the first time we had been together like that since December. Unfortunately, since I was hosting, I didn't get to spend a lot of time with them, as I had otehr responsibilities, but it was great to see them, hear about how they are doing and how their lives are.

Sunday was another busy day with some folks going back to the dacha and others hanging out in the city.

Monday again seemed to roll along as most olks from my group left into the evening. Since I had no one staying at my place, I said that I could host some others even though I had to go to the university in the morning (they never clarified with me that I've have class or not. The answer, as I found out after the walk, was no). I also arranged to go back to Odessa with a couple because I thought I may not be as stressed and that they could help me a bit. It was very frustrating not to get a ticket from N-- to Kyiv and cuts into my day today for cleaning, packing, or simply just relaxing, as I haven't really done that for a week because of the party preparations and hosting.

Because the schedule is so messed up I fear that I will feel no peace till I am on my airplane to Italy.

Her are my journey plans, which exhausts me just thinking about them:

N-- to Odessa by marshrutka (3 hours)
Odessa bus station to train station (by tram, maybe 20-30 minutes?)
Odessa train station (maybe 3 hours, just sitting around). I didn't want to take a chance of a marshrutka breaking down on me and not making it to the train station in time for my train.
Odessa to Kyiv, overnight train, platzkarte (over 11 hours)
Arrive early morning Kyiv
Taxi from Kyiv Vauxhaul to airport (maybe 1/2 hour, estimated $20--which is expensive for me).
Check in, wait in airport until late morning flight (hopefully at least 2 hours)
Fly to Italy (3 hours)
Wait for next flight (3 hours)
Fly to America (over 9 hours)
Arrive, getting bags, customs (God only knows)
Drive home to Philadelphia (maybe 3 hours??)

It is going to take me over a day to get home. Ugh. I am tired just looking at it. But I know that I will be excited when I get home and get some sleep.

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